Hodgen Mainda Becomes EPB’s Vice President of Community Development

Chattanooga, TN (April 21, 2017) – The EPB Board has approved Hodgen Mainda as Vice President of Community Development. In this newly created position, Mainda is charged with further strengthening EPB’s community engagement by working with both public and private partners on environmental stewardship, education, entrepreneurship and other community-oriented efforts.

According to David Wade, EPB’s president & CEO, Mainda is well positioned to lead the new effort. “EPB takes great pride in pursuing our mission of enhancing the lives of the people we serve,” Wade said. “Under Hodgen’s leadership, we will establish a comprehensive strategy for our community development efforts. Our goal is to magnify the positive impact of EPB’s engagement by doing a better job of connecting the dots among our partnerships and initiatives.”

Mainda, who joined EPB on January 3, welcomed the challenges of the new position. “I feel very fortunate to work for EPB where my professional mission of local community development is completely aligned with my personal mission of working for the greater good of the people of my adopted hometown,” Mainda said. “EPB is already very involved in this community, and I look forward to doing my part to further enhance those efforts.”

A native of Nairobi, Kenya, Mainda moved to Tennessee in 1997 for college and then moved to Chattanooga to pursue his career. He is married to Amber, and they have two small children.

About EPB

Established as an independent board of the City of Chattanooga in 1935, EPB is a municipally-owned utility that provides electric power and fiber optic communications services as a means of promoting economic development and enhancing quality of life across the local area.

EPB serves more than 170,000 homes and businesses in a 600 square-mile area that includes greater Chattanooga, as well as parts of surrounding counties and areas of North Georgia.

In 2010, EPB became the first provider in the United States to deliver up to 1 Gig (1,000 mbps) internet speeds utilizing a community-wide fiber optic network that provides access to every home and business in its service area. In 2015, EPB became the first, and to date, only American ISP to make up to 10 Gig (10,000 mbps) internet speeds accessible to all of its residential and commercial customers as a standard offer.

EPB has also utilized its community-wide fiber optic network to deploy the most advanced and highly automated smart grid power management system in the nation. In recognition of EPB’s groundbreaking infrastructure, the Department of Energy and Oak Ridge National Laboratory are utilizing EPB’s smart grid as a national model for researching and developing best practices. EPB is also the first major power distribution utility to earn the USGBC’s PEER certification for having a highly automated, modernized electric power grid. For more information, go to EPB.com.